With the sweets and treats from Halloween still scattered around homes across the country, Rangers will be hoping that the horror shows are behind them with Motherwell the Premier Sports Cup opponents.
A return to Hampden Park and a rematch of the earlier encounter between the two sides that saw the Ibrox vagrants dominate for an hour only to badly lose their way, at this stage in a cup competition, this could cost a place in the final.
Philippe Clement is still hanging onto his job as the Rangers manager, however, a repeat of Wednesday’s nightmare against Aberdeen will have fans hiding under the duvets again, a task that Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell is up for.
Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell hoping to upset Rangers
The Steelmen are fresh off the back of a fine 2-1 away win over Dundee Utd in mid-week and sit just three points behind Rangers in the league in fourth place.
When asked for his thoughts by Motherwell’s media team with a spot in the final up for grabs, Kettlewell was optimistic when he said:
“Hopefully, Sunday can be a day we look forward to and we acquit ourselves really, really well.
“Always the expectation will be that Rangers beat us, that’s simple, that how it always is in Scottish football.
“But if we can get that type of performance and a lot of the ones we have had over the course of the season, I believe that this group can be unbelievably competitive. And who knows where that takes you in cup competitions?”
Clement to be sacked if Rangers lose?
Motherwell will know that Rangers are fragile at the moment and Kettlewell will have seen what Kilmarnock and Aberdeen did to good effect.
It’s a damning indictment of the squad under Clement that the basic game plan of being direct, aggressive and compact under pressure are all it takes to nullify an expensively assembled outfit – in Scottish football terms, at least.
Clement is lucky that Rangers are in such a mess off the pitch, otherwise, he might well have been given his marching orders already, defeat at Hampden, and John Gilligan won’t have any other option than to add another vacancy to his to do list.
